Yi Yang came to pick her up, that was completely out of Xu Xinyi's expectations.

Especially after she checked the time.

It was 1:45AM.

How could Yi Yang come and pick her up so late?

A trace of strange joy and elation rose from the bottom of her heart which she quickly forcibly suppressed.

Xu Xinyi coughed and talked to the two assistants behind her who did not know where to put their eyes, "You two go back in my car. It's been hard these last couple days so take a day off tomorrow. "

Then she said to Jiang Nian, "Just have my driver take you home. Call me if you need anything."

Jiang Nian looked at the man in the car and his face twisted with immature hostility and vigilance.

Yi Yang looked up and saw it, but he just acted like he didn't see it. He didn't take the other man to heart. Jiang Nian's age, ability, and experience were all nothing in front of him.

"I was surprised by Mr. Yi's performance during the show today." Jiang Nian was like a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers. His tone clearly showed that his ‘surprise’ was not admiration but something a bit more cynical.

This child who had Yi Yang had never properly met had bad intentions, but Yi Yang didn't want to bother trading any ugly words with him. He looked over at Xu Xinyi and said, "Get in."

Xu Xinyi decided to maintain the peace and climbed into the car. But as she was sitting in the car, before she could close the door, Yi Yang suddenly grabbed her and pulled her inside. Xu Xinyi was a bit unsteady on her feet and she ended up falling into Yi Yang's arms.

As Xu Xinyi fell she saw Yi Yang’s slightly open suit coat, under which there was a thin dress shirt. She suddenly felt his body was extremely reliable even as his arms bent and firmly caught her. Xu Xinyi ended up nestled in his arms like a bird.

Jiang Nian’s face turned gloomy and he looked at Yi Yang with something unclear in his eyes.

Ugly words were unnecessary.

And it was even more unnecessary to get serious with a child as an opponent.

The door closed and the Bentley pulled slowly out of the underground garage.

"Is that really President Yi?"

"It must be! President Yi is so handsome! He’s much more handsome than the photos posted on the Yi Group's official website!"

"President Yi and Sister Xinyi are a good match. But I really don't understand how Sister Xinyi has endured it all these years. If I had such a handsome and rich husband, I couldn't help but show him off."

Jiang Nian’s face became more and more gloomy as he listened to the whispered discussion between the two assistants.

--------

The sound insulation of Bentley’s had always been very good, so even though the road the car was driving on wasn’t completely flat or steady, there was not a hint of noise from the outside world in the back seat.

In this extremely quiet atmosphere, Xu Xinyi had the illusion that she could hear the pounding of her own heart.

--"Isn’t it time to break this awkward silence?"

"Why did you get back so late?" Yi Yang made a seemingly casual remark.

"The plane had a two hour delay, so I was late," Xu Xinyi looked at him, happy to start chatting. "When did you get here? Have you been waiting long? Why didn't you tell me in advance?"

"11:00."

"You came to pick me up?"

Yi Yang nodded.

"Thank you for what happened on the show."

"You're welcome. It was as easy as raising a hand."

They both fell silent.

It was difficult to ‘chat’ with Yi Yang. In the final analysis, his EQ was lower than his IQ, but because of his position, his EQ was not that important. Even if he never said a word, he had people around him who would make things clear to whoever he was talking to.

Meanwhile, Xu Xinyi was a talker who could talk endlessly with Anya.

"But you should have received a script for the show yesterday, and all the segments should have been clarified beforehand. So how could something happen to catch you by surprise?"

"There was indeed a script for the show but there was a problem with the prop department, so the host improvised with some things I didn't expect and rushed us to the later parts of the script afterward." Xu Xinyi thought about it carefully and felt she had to solemnly thank Yi Yang for this matter. "Husband, thank you very much for what you did. If it wasn't for you, I don't know what people would be writing about me online tomorrow."

"Be more careful next time."

Xu Xinyi nodded.

"What are your work arrangements recently?"

"I don’t have many things planned for a while but soon I will start work on a movie and a TV show."

"A movie and a TV show?" Yi Yang raised his eyebrows and then frowned slightly. "How long will it take?"

"I'm not sure, we haven’t discussed the exact time yet but to make a conservative estimate..." Xu Xinyi considered out loud. "It will take five or six months at the very least."

Yi Yang rubbed his brow and his face sank slightly.

He had heard Zhao Bin say that couples shouldn’t spend too much time apart, many people in long-distance relationships ended up suffering because of the distance, and their feelings would get weaker and weaker until the couple broke up.

Long-term separation was not conducive to the stability of a relationship between a husband and a wife.

Yi Yang had seriously thought that because things in the company had slowly stabilized recently, he would spend more time in City A and would not have to fly all over the world anymore, but Xu Xinyi still liked to run all over the place like this.

Whatever. He would just have to wait and see.

The Bentley passed a street light and finally got off the highway and entered the city proper. As she looked at the row of bright street lights along the road, Xu Xinyi realized that this was not the way back to the Yi estate.

"We’re not going home?"

"We are going home."

The Bentley turned another corner and unexpectedly arrived at Lanting.

When the car stopped, Xu Xinyi tried to move her legs but ended up sucking in a breath of cold air.

After standing for the show for most of the day, her calves were swollen and her heels were slightly tingling. It wouldn’t have been too painful to move because she was used to standing in heels but she had curled her legs up on the seat so now her feet were numb and tingling like they were being stabbed with countless tiny needles. The feeling made her scalp numb and she dared not move from her seat.

--"Hiss-- it’s numb..."

--"Pain, pain, pain… It hurts..."

Yi Yang got out of his side of the car, walked around to Xu Xinyi’s side, and then picked her up without saying a word.

Feeling her body suddenly being lifted, Xu Xinyi was surprised and she subconsciously hugged Yi Yang’s neck. Because her legs suddenly moved the needling sensation became clearer and sharper.

But all she could think at first was: --"Shit, shit, Yi Yang, he’s hugging me!"

But her thoughts were quickly driven away by the needling pain and numbness.

"Slow down, it hurts! Pain!"

Xu Xinyi stiffly tried to lie motionless in his arms.

Yi Yang had to slow down his steps and try to walk smoothly into the elevator.

Eventually, they made it upstairs and then inside their apartment.

Xu Xinyi sat on the sofa and rubbed her swollen calves. She spent a long time trying to recover.

"Does it still hurt?"

Xu Xinyi took off her high heels, looked at her heel that had skin that was broken and red, and nodded bitterly.

Yi Yang took out a first aid kit from the inside and helped her treat the broken skin on her heel. He glanced at her swollen calf and then sat beside her. Under Xu Xinyi's confused gaze, he grabbed her calf and dragged it onto his own leg, then he began to massage it carefully for her.

Xu Xinyi was so surprised that she subconsciously tried to jerk her foot back, but found her ankle had been firmly clamped in Yi Yang's hand. "Don't move. I'll massage it for you, you will feel much better."

"It’s okay, I'll be fine in a minute."

But Yi Yang ignored her words and kept a firm grip on Xu Xinyi’s leg.

Yi Yang was only wearing his dress shirt with the white sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Seeing him like this, he seemed less arrogant and domineering when compared to when he wore his suit during the day. He looked a little younger.

Actually, since he was thirty, he could still be considered young.

In fact, putting aside all the external and emotional factors, Yi Yang's face value probably ranked at least third among all the men Xu Xinyi had seen.

And now the two were so close that Xu Xinyi could even count Yi Yang’s dark eyelashes.

--"I have reason to suspect that Yi Yang is trying to seduce me. This is clear evidence!"

--"Otherwise, why would he rub my feet for no reason?"

--"No, Xu Xinyi, you have to calm down. Keep your head clear and just let him rub your feet. Don’t just let trivial little things like this move you, try to make some progress as a human! Don't be easily captured by Yi Yang's sugar-coated bullets."

When she felt Yi Yang kneading her calf, Xu Xinyi's whole leg stiffened, and the feeling of numbness seemed to get even worse. It was like an unknown fire was burning up from her calf straight to her heart until her burning heartbeats were like a war drum.

--"Should I ask Yi Yang whether what he said on the show was really because he wanted to respect my opinion, or did he just want to distance himself from me?"

But when she thought about it, she didn't think it was appropriate to ask.

--"It probably isn’t good for me to ask, right? Because there should be trust between a husband and wife."

--"...but maybe it's better to ask clearly, what if he was just lying casually on the phone?"

Yi Yang's dark eyes were hidden in the shadows, full of unknown feelings.

"It's up to you to make a decision about our marriage. I will cooperate with you when you think that it's appropriate to announce it publicly."

Xu Xinyi blinked and felt moved. "Really? Husband, you are so considerate. Thank you!"

Yi Yang listened silently but didn't hear anything else. After a while, he replied, "You're welcome."

-----------

Maybe it was because she was too tired from running back and forth but Xu Xinyi slept so well that when she was finally woken up by the vibrating of her cell phone the next day, it was already 10 o'clock in the morning.

She groped vaguely for her phone and found it eventually. She checked her messages and found that Anya had sent her some messages about Jiang Nian.

Currently, the internet was buzzing crazily about Jiang Nian.

After Jiang Nian was exposed as a rich second generation on the program, the studio took advantage of the situation to push the topic #Jiang Nian rich second generation# onto the popular search list. So many fans were eagerly speculating on the topic and wondering which low-key rich second generation had come out to experience life.

"Oh my god! My Jiang Nian turned out to be a rich second generation who came out to experience life! Do any powerful sisters recognize which family he belongs to?"

"It really shocked me. I was his fan back when Jiang Nian made his debut in the group big_five. Back then, Jiang Nian was just a small member of the group and I thought he was just an ordinary man with no background who had been discovered by the company. But he turned out to be a rich second generation."

"He was the same as the rest of big_five, how many grievances did they all suffer back then. It makes me sad to think about it QAQ."

"According to one of the sisters who was in the audience yesterday, after Jiang Nian made a phone call, the man he called gave him a million yuan. What kind of family is that? Why don’t I have a family like that at home?"

Jiang Nian was actually quite suitable for the image of a ‘rich second generation’.

But what followed popularity was envy that was deep like a river. Some lurking enemies that had been annoyed with Jiang Nian’s popularity for a long time could no longer sit still, and black material that had been simmering beneath the surface suddenly burst out energetically.

The first thing was education.

"Jiang Nian? You don't know but he changed his ID card. He actually just came of age, and now he is 18 years old. He was only 16 years old when he entered big_five. Shouldn't a 16 year-old be in high school? But Jiang Nian didn't even finish high school. Which rich second generation doesn't even read books?"

The second thing was old scandals.

"Don't just trumpet blindly, what rich second generation? If he was really a rich second generation, would he be asked to drink with a big boss at the Yonghe Club? What unspeakable things has he done for his Gold Master?"

The third thing was his ‘calculating personality’.

"After being driven out of big_five, Jiang Nian went to Film City to follow Xu Xinyi. He played some tricks and schemes, then ended up as an assistant under Xu Xinyi for several months before he finally signed up to Xu Xinyi’s studio. Have you ever seen such a scheming rich second generation?"

Xu Xinyi had just woke up and first thing in the morning all these things were sent to her by Anya. She was suddenly so excited that all traces of sleepiness were blown away.

They wanted to smear her artist, did they really think she was a vegetarian?

Xu Xinyi couldn't just sit still and stay in bed, so she got up and quickly got dressed. She was ready to head out to the studio.

"Where are you going?" Yi Yang stopped her in the living room.

"The company."

"What's so urgent?"

Xu Xinyi complained while changing her shoes: "Something has happened to Jiang Nian. I have to hurry over and see how to solve it."

Yi Yang's brow furrowed slightly. "Is there no staff in your company? Do you have to solve everything personally?"

Xu Xinyi finished changing her shoes, then turned around and asked him, "Why didn't you go to your company?"

"Should I go and work for the company on the weekend?"

Xu Xinyi smiled. "Didn't you always used to work on the weekends?"

--"You used to run all over the world but now you want to talk about working on weekends."

"Anyway, you have a good rest at home. I'll go first."

Bang--

The door closed.

Yi Yang silently sat on the sofa in the cool air-conditioned air. He looked around at the huge living room with its floor-to-ceiling windows and really felt the stillness of such a spacious room when it was empty. Only now did he fully feel the truth of those words: 'What goes around comes around'*.

--------

*the actual idiom he uses is ‘因果循环报应不爽’ which a lot of dictionaries I checked just directly translate to ‘what goes around comes around’ which is why I went with that. The more literal translation is hard for me to suss out. Something about karma and retribution.

TL note: This isn’t the first time Yi Yang and Xu Xinyi have been having a conversation and Yi Yang will ‘listen for her thoughts’ to see if she’s still dissatisfied about anything before he lets things drop and...I dunno it’s kind of uncomfortable? Like I was highly amused by the mind-reading stuff in the first few chapters (in fact, it was like 80% of the reason I picked the story up) but now that it’s being used like this I don’t like it as much anymore.